Sudarshan Shetty (b. 1961)

While looking at published images of the ideal interior space, Shetty noticed a jarring dichotomy as the images repeatedly lacked all forms of human habitation - the eventual buyers of this utopian environment. Playing on the complete absence of humans, these paintings also challenge notions of painterly investment for Shetty as he renders the images in a staid and controlled manner, marking a stylistic shift from his earlier works.

I am interested in the idea of absence, a human absence, of being elsewhere. I think most of us are condemned to be elsewhere: I embrace this predicament and rejoice in it.

Sudarshan Shetty (Artist Statment, S. Shetty & A. Mehta, "The Presence of Absence", Verve Online: Life and Soul, Vol. 12, Issue 5, November-December, 2004, www.verveonline.com/31/life/sudarshan/full.shtml)